


A Home Forever

by DarkHorseAsh



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Ableism, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Kids, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Autistic Kima, Autistic Percival "Percy" de Rolo III, Blind Percy, Chronic Pain, Nonverbal Character, Other tags to be added when people join, Panic Attacks, Service Dogs, Sign Language, Vax has seizures, Vex has Chronic Pain, autistic keyleth, meltdowns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-01-15 04:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21247562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkHorseAsh/pseuds/DarkHorseAsh
Summary: Allura and Kima Vysoren have always wanted children, but they don't exactly have the capacity to have their own.  So they decide to adopt children, more specifically, disabled children after Kima's own experiences in the system.  Their family might be unusual, but it's *theirs,* and they'll do anything for it.





	1. Keyleth Arrives

Allura had been cleaning since 5 Am. Kima knew that, because that was what time it had been when Allura had kissed her head and rolled out of bed, and it was now 9 am and the smaller woman was finally getting up. She trotted down to the kitchen, leaning against Allura’s side with a sigh. “Remind me, what’s the story on the one coming today?” Allura sighs, wrapping an arm around Kima’s shoulder with a fond smile. “Keyleth. Her mom vanished when she was little, apparently, and her father was killed a few months ago. She’s autistic, and her last three homes apparently didn’t end well.”

Kima nodded, forcing herself to remain calm even though her fairly high level of worry. Allura, seeing right through this mask, pressed a kiss to her wife’s head and leaned into her side with a fond smile. “We’ve got this.” She was about to speak again when a knock drew her attention to the door. Kima gave her a reassuring smile, nudging her wife towards the door and taking over the bacon cooking. 

Allura’s heart clenched with pain as she took in the girl in front of her. Keyleth was small with red hair and green eyes. She was holding a leash that was attached to a large pitbull who had red fur and was wearing a vest that Allura noted said “Service dog” on the side. She paused, mentally cursing out the foster agency for not mentioning that their new foster kid had a service dog before smiling and opening the door wider. “Hi there, you must be Keyleth, come in.” She sized up the somewhat enthusiastic-looking caseworker with a tired smile, moving to one side to let both inside. 

“Keyleth, your room is the second one on the right if you want to go put your bag down.” The girl nodded, still not raising her head high enough to show her face as she scrambled down the hall, moving so fast the dog had to race to keep up. Kima grimaced as she heard the door click closed and the lock clicks into place, following the social worker into the kitchen to listen to the very-too-short information.

Keyleth was  _ scared.  _ Tiberius was picking up on it, nosing at her hand and crawling into her lap as soon as she sat. She pressed her hands into the soft fur, making little whining noises as she rubbed her fingers down the dog’s back until the worst of the panic had faded, pressing kisses over the fuzzy face. She knew she should probably go out and greet the women, the one at the door had seemed nice enough, but she couldn’t bring herself to move from the little cocoon she’d made with her blankets and Tiberius. 

Allura wasn’t sure how long they should wait before going in to make sure Keyleth was ok. The girl had looked terrified as she ducked into the bedroom, leading a dog who was almost as big as she was, but Allura wanted to give her time to relax for a little bit before they talked to her. She turned her attention back to the social worker, who gave the duo a smile. “I know you two have said you’re willing to foster disabled children, which I really appreciate as it’s hard for me to place many of my wards who are disabled. I’ll be back in a few days to check in on you guys and Keyleth, and if everything seems to be going well we’ll probably have at least one more, if not more, who need a long-term placement in the near future.” 

Once the man had left, Allura turned to Kima and sucked in a long, shaky breath. “Ok, let’s give her a few minutes to relax and then we can go chat” she suggests. Kima nods, digging into her breakfast but jerking upright in surprise at the sound of footsteps coming in her direction, eyes falling on the small child at the door. “Hi there, Keyleth. Would you like some breakfast?” the girl was gripping the leash of the big dog, who was lapping gently at her hand as she gave a small nod, eyes firmly facing the ground. “We don’t have any dog food yet, your social worker didn’t feel the need to tell us about your beautiful dog, so we’ll go get some of that later but would he like some eggs and bacon?” Keyleth gave another little nod, sliding into the nearest chair and making a hand motion, causing Tiberius to lay down by her side as she loosened the leash a little. 

Kima served up four plates of bacon and eggs, adding toast to the plates for the humans. The dog lay patiently as Keyleth put his plate down, till she gave a tiny “eat” and he dug in. The girl herself didn’t touch the eggs, but devoured the bacon and the toast, sending disgusted glances at the eggs as she ate that made Kima laugh. Allura had already finished eating and was washing the dishes, grabbing her coat and sending a fond look at Kima, who was feeding the extra bacon to the dog. “What’s his name, Keyleth?” Keyleth glanced up, eyes still down but brighter. “This is Tiberius. He’s the best.” She slid down to wrap her arms around the dog, who nuzzled at her head quite happily. 

In the end it was Kima who finally brought up the question of pet food again. “Do you and Tiberius want to come with us, Keyleth? You don’t have to, one of us can stay here with you if you’d like.” The small woman offers. Keyleth seemed to consider for a moment before deciding “I want to come.” Kima nodded, grabbing her messenger bag and coat and leading the way out to the car. Allura called driving, because she did  _ not  _ want to traumatize poor Keyleth with Kima’s horrific driving skills. She’d opened her mouth to ask if Keyleth needed a hand, but two hand motions later Keyleth was leaning against the window and Tiberius was sprawled on the floor dozing.

Keyleth was getting twitchier and twitchier as they approached the door, positively vibrating as she slid out of the car, looping Tiberius’s leash around her shoulder so her hands were free to flap nervously. Allura paused, somewhat concerned the large dog would speed up and pull the small girl off-balance, but the pup slowed to Keyleth’s pace and plodded along at her side as they entered the store. It was Sunday, so the grocery was  _ loud  _ and Keyleth yelped, pressing closer to Tiberius’s side. Allura turned to glance at her, grimacing at the sound herself and wrapping an arm around Kima’s shoulders as her wife pressed closer. “We’re gonna be super quick.” She promises, turning towards the pet food aisle. 

She scanned the bags of food, unsure of which was the best, but Keyleth went straight to a bag on the far side and nodded at it. Kima grabbed the bag over her shoulder and carried it to the cart as the girl wandered a little further down the aisle, pausing as Allura calls “we have to go grab some food but if you want to stay  _ right here  _ and look at pet toys, that’s fine. Pick a few for him, and anything else he needs.” Keyleth nods, plopping onto the floor and examining each pet toy.

A few minutes later, Allura and Kima had finished with their food-getting, and with finding a few things for Keyleth. They walked slowly back to the pet aisle, freezing when they heard shouts. Kima broke into a run, Allura stumbling after her since the cart she pushed was slowing her down. There were two teenagers, both boys, standing over the terrified looking 10-year-old on the floor, dog crouched next to her. Kima noted in surprise that even in this situation, the dog wasn’t being scary in any way. He seemed nearly as scared as Keyleth, who was flapping in terror as Kima grabbed both boys by their wrists and hauled them out of sight. Allura moved to kneel by Keyleth, but the girl howled and scrambled back, and Allura raised an eyebrow as Tiberius now shoved himself between her and the girl before scrambling forward.

Keyleth was sobbing, tears streaming down her cheeks as she shook and rocked frantically. A wet noise drew a little of her attention to the dog resting on her knees and she gave a gasping whimper as she gave the sign for up, feeling the heavy animal press his paws to her shoulder and all of his weight on her body, cold nose nosing at her ears and forehead. She wrapped an arm around him, feeling her other hand smacking and clawing at her leg but ignoring it as she tried to focus on the dog’s warm body, slumping against him and slowly working her other arm around him until the worst of the screaming in her head quieted. She kept her head down, unsure of how long it had been and unwilling to look anywhere near Allura, already knowing how much disappointment she’d see on the woman’s face.  _ Why couldn’t you be normal for three hours they’re going to get rid of you already.  _

Kima waited as the girl slowly uncurled, heart breaking at the fragile look on Keyleth’s face. Allura had gone to pay for their things, and grabbed a few toys for the dog, and now Kima was left on “watching the kid” duty. She rummaged in her bag, finding her noise-canceling headphones and holding them out, feeling Keyleth’s small hand grab them and slip them on. “Time to go” she signed, not sure if Keyleth knew what she was saying or was listening but hoping she was as she started towards the exit. 

Keyleth felt about five times better with the headphones on. Her own pair had been destroyed two homes ago, by a woman who thought she just needed to act normal to be normal. Tiberius wouldn’t leave her side, her hands clinging to his fur and harness as she let him guide her out of the store and after Kima. Allura had already packed up the car so Keyleth scrambled into the backseat. This time, Tiberius hopped onto the seat and sprawled over her lap, nuzzling at her head as the girl leaned against the window. Her eyes caught Kima’s hands as the woman signed “You ok?” Keyleth blinked in surprise but her hands were already moving into a responded “Yes, I am ok.” Kima nodded, signing back an affirmative “You are ok” as Keyleth settled down against the window, closing her eyes and falling asleep to the feeling of Tiberius’s heartbeat under her fingers. 


	2. Chapter 2

Keyleth got home and fled to her room. Kima watched with a tired, worried look on her face as the girl bolted as soon as the car had stopped. “Hey, we did fine.” Kima murmured, seeing the distressed look on Allura’s face. “She’s ok. We got everything we needed.” Allura nods, pulling herself out of the car with a grimace, trotting into the house to put away the dog food and other things they’d bought. 

It was three hours before Keyleth emerged again, leaning on Tiberius as she went to sit down on the couch. The dog’s harness was off so he happily bounced around the room, tail wagging fiercely as he grabbed one of the new chew toys and lay down to work on it, tail wagging slowly. Kima smiled, turning to Keyleth. “Since he’s not working can I Pet him?” The girl nodded so Kima grinned, dropping to her knees next to the dog and petting his ears as he huffed happily, Allura watching from the kitchen with a wide smile. 

Over the next few days, they slowly settled into a routine. Keyleth hadn’t started at school, yet, but she seemed more relaxed around the house and was chatting and relaxing more with Kima and Allura. They had signed her up for school, fifth grade to be precise, so in another day or so she would be there during the day while they worked. Kima taught hand-to-hand combat at a local gym, and Allura worked making incredibly cool art out of their house.

It was nearly 9 pm when she got the phone call. Allura had been about to go to bed when she’d heard it, sighing and going to pick it up with a “It’s Allura,” pausing at the voice she heard. “Gil? Slow down, what’s wrong?” Kima must have heard her speaking because she ducked into the room, eyes widening at the horrified look on Allura’s face. “I’ll go get Keyleth, you start the car, ok?”

Keyleth was looking around with wide, scared eyes as they drove, Allura definitely going faster than was legal. Kima hadn’t given much information, but she’d told the young girl that they were going to pick up another foster child and he was apparently not doing well. Gilmore was waiting in the lobby, looking exhausted, but he spun around as soon as they came in with a look of sheer relief. “Hi there Keyleth.” 

The girl gave a little wave with her free hand as Gilmore turned to Allura and Kima. “Thank you guys so, so much for this. I wouldn’t ask for you to take a second this soon if it wasn’t an emergency and I can’t find somewhere else to place him for the night, much less long term, and I trust you guys.” Allura nods, following down the hall as the man led her to the window of one of the small interview rooms.

Her heart broke at what she found inside. The boy was terrifyingly pale, with stark white hair, dark glasses, and an absolutely emaciated form. “Shit.” She breathed. The child was curled in a ball in the corner of the room, with a medium-sized, brown-and-grey dog resting between him and the door, wearing a black harness with a sort of handle thing. One of the boy’s hands was tangled loosely in the dog’s fur and the other was smacking nervously against the wall. 

“This is Percy. He’s got a bit of a long name, and I’ll admit I don’t have all of his middle names memorized, but he doesn’t seem averse to being called Percy. At this point, we’re honestly not entirely sure of the extent of his trauma and what’s trauma versus what’s a physical condition. We’re almost certain he’s blind, but he’s also completely nonverbal at this point and we’re not sure if that’s trauma or not. Within reason, he’s pretty non-responsive in general, though our attempts at tests imply he can hear. Unofficially…” Here, Gilmore sighed, looking more unkempt than they’d ever seen him. “I think a lot of it is trauma so I hope once he’s in your home and he understands you won’t hurt him, he’ll do better.” 

Allura looked...overwhelmed, so Kima took over and nodded briskly. “Of course. We’ll do our best, Gil. Can we go in?” Gilmore nodded, turning the handle and slipping into the room, speaking gently. “Hi there, Percy. These are my friends, Kima and Allura. You’re going to go live with them, ok?” Percy didn’t move for a few moments, but then he slowly began to uncurl. The dog stood with him, automatically taking a position just in front of the boy as he stood silently, head down. 

Percy heard three sets of footsteps coming into the room and paused in his petting of Cassandra, feeling the dog shift against his hands. He forced himself to focus on what the social worker was saying, catching the end of the sentence; these were his new foster parents. He grimaced, shifting to his knees and grasping the dog’s shoulders to help himself up, gripping the sturdy, metal handle attached to the dog’s harness. There was also a leash clipped to her harness, which he methodically looped over his shoulder and tied. He gripped the handle for a moment, taking slow, shaky steps forward until Cassandra halted and waited. A voice from his left startled him a little, but he managed to keep himself still. 

“Hello there dear, it’s very nice to meet you I’m Allura. Would you like to come with us?” Her voice was kind and he clung to it, unable and unwilling to respond as he hoped they’d understand. They must have because the voice spoke again. “Alright, that’s a beautiful dog you’ve got. Follow me kiddo, let’s get you home and get you some food.” Percy dropped to one knee to grab his cane, which was resting against the wall, slowly working his way down the hall. Cassandra led him easily around the various turns and twists in the halls, so the cane was more of a safety measure, but he still felt better holding it. 

He could hear another set of paws and wondered mentally what it was but ignored it, feeling his way to the car and folding up his cane, prompting Cassandra in with a tap to her haunches and climbing in himself, feeling his  _ good wonderful the best  _ dog rest on his feet tail wagging fiercely. The car radio blared to life and he couldn’t stop but cry out at how loud it was, pressing a hand to his ear as Cassandra half-sat against his knees, forcing her head against his face and licking fiercely as the boy forced himself to calm down. The radio had already been turned down by the time he removed his hands from his ears and focused on the feel of the dog under his hands.

Once they got home, Kima was about to ask if he wanted help finding the bedroom when Keyleth moved first, stepping forward with one hand resting on the slightly taller, but frailer looking, boy’s hand. Kima listened intently as the girl gave a soft “Here, you want to hold my arm and I can show you around the house?” Percy didn’t speak, but one hand came up to shakily grasp her elbow as they slowly walked towards the house. Kima smiled, leaning against Allura’s side as they followed behind more slowly. By the time they got inside, the ten-year-olds were walking towards the bedrooms. Keyleth paused by the door to hers, Tiberius trailing behind since the hall wasn’t really big enough for them to be four in a row. Kima scooted closer, hearing the girl quietly ask “ d’you want your own room or to stay with me?” 

He wasn’t sure why, but he trusted, at least a little, the girl with her elbow under his hand. She was babbling on, explaining the house in an impressive quantity of detail. He almost thought he could get around the house without too much trouble, though he really had no intention of trying. They paused in front of a bedroom door and he could hear the nervousness in the girl’s voice as she spoke. He hesitated but realized that being in a room with another person who  _ seemed  _ nice would make it harder for him to be locked in with no food and water or be beaten up in his room so he forced himself to give a little nod. He could almost  _ feel  _ a beaming smile on the girl’s face as he was led into the room, settling down on the bed. He tapped it and Cassandra jumped up, nuzzling at his hands as he worked to undo her harness and free the fuzzy dog. 

Keyleth left the new boy be, watching him curl up with his dog resting over his side as he dozed. The dog was about the same size as Tiberius, with curly fur and big eyes. The boy lay quietly, but Keyleth didn’t want to leave since she’d feel bad if he woke up alone. Tiberius was out of his harness and running around in the kitchen, she could hear his nails clicking on the tiled floors. She pulled out a book, tucking her legs under a couple of heavy blankets with a sigh as she opened to the first page.

Kima was playing fetch with Tiberius when Allura came back into the kitchen, glancing around; she had been reading Percy’s file. Kima grimaced at the haunted look on her wife’s face, wrapping arms tightly around her for a moment. “It’s bad?” Allura gave a tired nod, moving to sit down at the kitchen table with a sigh. “Apparently. His family were well-off; they owned a fairly successful company of some kind a few hours away from here. When he was 7, 3 years ago, his entire family died by what seems to have been a disease of some kind. After that, he was taken in by some of his parent’s friends, a couple who also took over the company. They had documents saying in the event of something happening they got custody, so they did. CPS notes seem to indicate he was fairly healthy at that time. Today, he showed up on the doorstep of the CPS office emaciated, blind, and unresponsive.”

Kima grimaced, curling her hands into fists and biting down on the urge to punch something. “I assume they no longer have custody?” Allura nods, sighing as Kima slumped into a chair next to her. “Yeah. They’re not sure what happened, since he doesn’t speak, but as far as they can tell  _ something  _ bad happened. I don’t think they got him formally diagnosed but he  _ definitely  _ has severe PTSD.” Kima nods in agreement, patting Tiberius on the head as the dog, seemingly noticing how upset Allura looked, trotted over and lay his head on her lap. “Ok. This is fine. Is he going to start school with Keyleth or?” 

He woke to something soft under him, and the heavy weight of Cassandra sprawled over his body. The worst of the panic bled from his muscles and he relaxed a little, listening intently and hearing the sound of pages flipping, assuming it was the enthusiastic girl from before. He patted the bed and Cassandra rolled off him, giving a woof that seemed to draw Keyleth’s attention because the pages stopped turning. “Oh, you’re awake! Do you want to go get some breakfast?” He froze, hands stilling, but the girl didn’t seem to care that it took him  _ far too long why are you so stupid  _ to mull over the question. His stomach was empty and he was hungry so he gave a tiny nod, clipping Cassandra’s leash on for the moment but leaving her harness off.

In a moment of desperation, as he realized he had no idea where to go, he held out a hand shakily. Keyleth must’ve understood because she slipped her elbow under his hand and started up a steady stream of chatter as they started towards the door. “I think Kima said that they were going to make chicken tonight. Do you like chicken?” At this point, Percy was pretty sure he’d eat anything, but his lack of a response didn’t bother the girl. “And right down here is the kitchen. Do you wanna go sit at the table?” Allura watched with interest as the boy didn’t move for a long moment before giving a tiny nod, letting Keyleth help him over to a seat and sitting, one hand resting on Cassandra’s flank. 

Allura spoke up from the far side of the table as Percy shakily ran his fingers over the plate. “My name is Allura, we’re very glad to have you here Percy. There’s eggs and bacon out already, and there’s pumpkin bread, too, if you’d like some of that.” Keyleth gave an eager “Pumpkin bread!” And Kima laughed, passing over a slice with a smile as Percy gave a tiny nod, before scooping a piece onto his plate as well. The boy fumbled with his fork for a moment, hands shaking badly as he tried to cut up the food. Kima watched for a few minutes before having enough, asking “Percy, would you mind if I cut it for you?” 

He didn’t want to say yes, at all; he’s more than old enough to cut his own food. But he’s tired and his hands won’t stop trembling and he just wants food so he nods, feeling the woman move around and tug his plate to one side for a moment. Cassandra moved to rest her face and front paws on his knees as he waited for the plate to be passed back, giving a tiny, signed thank you before diving into the food. The pancakes were delicious and the thin boy was hungry enough to eat anything at this point. The others were chatting but he ignored it, using his shaking hands to scoop the food into his mouth.

The boy spent the next day and a half curled up in a tiny ball on the corner of the couch listening to whatever was on the TV. After watching him flinch one too many times at the football commentators shouting, Allura switched it to one of those law dramas, focused mostly on her book. She glanced up after a little while and noticed that Percy had shifted to sit up straight, clearly listening intently to the television and gave a small smile before turning back to her book, deciding to leave him be. 

The second night, Percy curled up as usual, Cassandra draped over his legs and fell asleep under a blanket. He woke himself up two hours later screaming his throat out, howling and gasping and writhing under the blanket as he fought desperately. He heard a door slamming and yelped, struggling to free his limbs and get away from whatever was going on. He couldn’t stop the tears from falling from his useless eyes, hearing Cassandra giving sharp, angry barks as she presumably positioned herself between him and the threat. “No, no, no.” He gasped desperately, uselessly, knowing no amount of begging would make it _stop_. 

Kima had woken to the screams and cursed, rolling away from Allura, and  _ really  _ hoping her wife would miraculously stay asleep, scrambling in the direction of the children’s room. Keyleth was huddled in her bed looking worried as Percy thrashed and screamed on his side of the room, frail body twisting desperately as he fought to free himself from the sheets and flee. “Percy, you’re ok!” Kima cried, approaching the bed quickly. “You’re safe. You’re at home in bed. You’re  _ safe. _ ” 

He wasn’t stupid, she was lying,  _ lying lying lying don’t lie to me Percival you know I don’t like lying.  _ He keens, disoriented and afraid. He’s still struggling to get loose, tears running down his face, when Cassandra finally tries again. He has a vague memory of panic-shoving the dog to one side earlier, so she’d taken the hint and guarded him. Now, she ignored his flailing limbs, shoving herself onto his lap, putting a paw on either shoulder, and starting to lick him fiercely. He whimpers again, but Cassandra seems determined.

The boy was still shaking. Kima hesitated, unsure if she should try to help, but the dog was already filling his whole lap and most of his personal space so she stayed motionless. Cassandra gave a low noise, somewhere between a purr and a growl, muscular body draped entirely over her boy’s body in an effort to calm him. Percy jerked away with a yowl, one hand striking the wall somewhat frantically. Before Kima had a chance to move, Cassandra did, leaping to the floor and shoving her head into the boy’s shoulder bag, emerging with a ball in her mouth. She scrambled back up onto the bed and awkwardly shoved her body between Percy and the wall, dropping the ball into his lap and poking at his arm with her face. Percy faltered, hand dropping to seize the spiky ball, and Kima could almost see the dog relax.

After what felt like hours but Kima knew wasn’t, she watched Percy slowly uncurl, falteringly yanking his blanket away from his legs, one arm looped around the dog. He gave a soft double tap to her shoulder, a silent  _ thank you  _ as she leaned into his side. Kima approached loudly and Percy flinched back at the sound of her feet on the floor. “Hey there, Percy. Are you alright?” The boy whimpered but didn’t protest, which...she was taking as a victory? Maybe? She nodded, glancing over at Keyleth, who was already mostly asleep again, Tiberius curled up under her arm.

“Ok. Try and get some more sleep, Percy, it’s late.” She ducks back out towards her room, making a relieved noise in the back of her throat as she finds Allura still asleep, crawling in next to her wife and cuddling up against her back, firmly refusing to think about the raw terror on the boy’s face. 


	3. The First Day of School

Allura slipped into the kitchen the next morning and paused. Percy was standing mixing something, Cassandra out of her harness sprawled at his feet. Keyleth was at the stove, a spatula resting in her hand as she poked at something on a pan. As Allura watched, Keyleth gave a soft “can you grab me a plate?” Percy shifted to one side, hand clasping a plate and passing it to her, lowering his head to sniff whatever was in his bowl before putting a bit more of something that looked like cinnamon in the bowl. Allura was about to wonder where Tiberius was when the dog trotted into the room with a book in his mouth, nudging it into Keyleth’s leg until Percy dropped a hand and took it, flipping it to a page like he already knew where he was going.

Allura knew both children knew she was there; Keyleth had turned around several times and she’d seen Percy tighten in fear as she got near, but she didn’t want to push them so she sat down at the table. Keyleth was singing softly under her breath as she bounced on her heels and Percy didn’t seem to mind. He shifted closer to her with a whine, so Keyleth turned closer and nudged her hand into his, ignoring his flinching as she drew him to her side and muttered something in his ear that made the boy squirm in amusement, taking the plate and making a low whistling sound. Allura tilted her head in confusion, but then she saw Cassandra scramble to her feet and nudge him forward. The boy lowered a hand to her back, fumbling his way to the table and setting the plate down. 

“What did you guys make?” Allura asks, peering at the plate of fruit and toast with a smile. Keyleth beamed, sending a thrilled smile at Percy who seemed to feel her eyes on him, ducking his head awkwardly. “Percy made French Toast like my mama used to make!” She beamed. “Here, we made a ton.” She passed a few pieces around, filling Percy’s plate for him and digging into her own. Percy slowly turned to eat his own food and Allura spoke up. “Keyleth, don’t forget you have testing this afternoon so you can start school tomorrow.” Percy paused, hands flickering over his plate in a silent question and the woman seems to understand. “Do you want to go as well, Percy? You’re going to have to some day soon, but you can either go with Keyleth today or go early next week.” 

He didn’t want to go on  _ any  _ day, but if he had to...he jerked a hand towards Keyleth and felt Cassandra butt her head against his feet. “Ok, we’re leaving in a few hours ok?” Percy nodded, finishing off his food and shoving the plate away before scrambling up and feeling his way towards his room, curling up tiredly on his bed. Cassandra nuzzled against his shoulder, draped over his back, and the boy relaxed a little, until Allura knocked on the door an hour and a half later. “Hey kiddo, we’re leaving soon so make sure you’re dressed.” Percy forces himself to nod, trying to force his mouth to work. He managed something close to “Shirt” and felt Cassandra trot towards the closet, listening to her paws on the floor and the sound of her moving. A moment later there were a pair of paws on his lap and a shirt on his shoulder. He took it clumsily, sending her back out with a “pants.” He wrestled his shirt off and the new one on, doing the same with the pair of jeans that were dropped on his face. 

Cassandra knew this routine by now, so she was searching for his shoes before he even asked. The moment she dropped them on his lap he leaned to rub her ears, giving her a double tap to her left shoulder as a  _ thank you  _ and a double to her right as a  _ good dog.  _ Cassandra gave a happy bark before charging off to find her harness when he signed for it. Percy was pretty sure that he had the greatest dog ever as she scrambled back up and he claimed the harness, carefully getting it over her head and fumbling with the straps, fastening it before moving on to trying to find the leash. With a sigh, he turned to Cassandra’s direction, signing “Leash.” Cassandra trotted off, but only seemed to be able to find the shorter leash, which he had to hold. He  _ hated  _ the shorter leash; he preferred the one that went over his shoulder so he had a free hand for his cane. 

Footsteps drew his attention to the door. Allura announced her presence with a soft “do you need something, dear?” Percy hesitated, shaking his head and clipping the leash on and standing, reaching a hand out for the doorframe and slowly feeling his way to the door. Keyleth was a few steps to his right, squirming and whining softly in nervousness as they walked out to the car. “Now, you two are going to be taking some tests on the computer it shouldn’t be that bad. Percy, I believe the system will read the questions for you but if you need help, just ask.” 

Keyleth watches Percy the whole way to the school. He’s shaking nervously, dog sprawled on his feet whining. As they reach the school she jumps out, steadying herself on Tiberius’s shoulder before approaching. “Hey, Percy? Would you like a hand?” He nods jerkily so she swaps Tiberius’s leash to around her shoulders, letting Percy grasp her elbow and ease himself out of the car. Cassandra hops down and he hesitates, gripping the handle and leash in his left hand but keeping his right hand tight on her arm. “You ready to go?” Percy nods and so Keyleth turns them in the direction of the school and sets off.

Allura watches from a few feet away as the children move slowly towards the door. Keyleth is speaking but the woman can’t quite hear the child’s words, the two small heads bent forward as they took slow, careful steps. Keyleth paused at the bottom of the stairs and Allura got a little closer, in time to hear the girl murmur “ok, step up Perce, there’s four.” They make it work, slowly, Tiberius keeping close to her side and Cassandra a step and a half ahead of Percy. 

School is out, so it’s fairly empty as they work their way to the testing room. Allura sits near the door, not entirely willing to let the duo out of her sight in a new place, as Percy slips his headphones on and begins to type, fingers flying over the keyboard. Keyleth moves more slowly, hands carefully tapping at the keys as she works.

Percy finishes first but doesn’t move, one hand fisting in Cassandra’s fur as she nuzzles soothingly at his hand. After a little while longer he can hear Keyleth approach, all hesitant steps and taps of Tiberius’s nails on the floor as he slowly turns to her, reaching out a hand to grip hers. He can hear Allura talking to the man in charge of the test but he ignores it, huddling against Keyleth’s side and trying to ignore where he was. 

“Alright, so, both of them seem to have a decent base education. Keyleth is around grade level in english and science and only slightly below in math, so I’m sure she’ll catch up in no time.” Allura nods, glancing over at Percy, who was seemingly trying to hide behind the redhead. “And Percy?” Here, the teacher smiled. “Your boy is incredibly bright, ma’am. He’s well above grade level in math and science, though his reading comp was a bit low. However,” He added, glancing over at the duo, “I’m sure once he’s reading books in braille and not just listening to paragraphs of text, it’ll be a bit easier for him.” 

The two talked for a few minutes longer, confirming that Allura, and Kima who was at work, wanted the two kids to be in the same class. “We do have a great special education room.” The man, Mr.Smith, explained. “I know you’d like them to be in a typical classroom and I think they’ll do well there, but I think it would be good to also make sure they know where it is so if they need a break they can go there.”

They went home, after that. Percy and Keyleth retreated to the safety of their bedroom, to a pile of blankets and a  _ kind  _ pair of dogs. Keyleth curled up in a little ball with a book, but after a few pages she heard Percy give a little whimper and turned to glance at him. “Percy?” He shifted, feeling his way across the bed to curl up by her feet, tapping the book then his own mouth, and Keyleth got it. “Ohh, you wanna listen?” He nods and shifts, letting Keyleth help him shift up far enough to put his head in her lap as she opened the book and started to read aloud.

The next morning he’s curled up against Keyleth’s side when he wakes up. He can hear the dogs moving around the room and whines, carefully easing his way towards the closet. His fingers fumbled over the fabric; he had minimal clothes, which meant that he at least could tell what each one was by touch. His fingers closed on what he remembered as being a fairly nice looking flannel, tugging it on and moving on to searching for jeans. He yelps as Cassandra bumps into his legs from behind, tail wagging against his side as he gives up and gives a shaky “Jeans.” She finds them; on the floor, which explained why he couldn’t figure out where they were. Then he moved slowly back into the kitchen, letting Cassandra trot along at his side. “Whos a good dog.” He hears Allura murmur and smiles, because yeah, Cassandra is a  _ good  _ dog. 

Keyleth wanders out a little later, Tiberius trailing after her as she yawns her way to the table, wolfs down toast, and clings to Percy’s arm with everything she’s worth. Percy is clinging just as tightly as she is, both children clearly stressing as Kima sent them to finish getting ready since neither dog was harnessed yet and Percy didn’t have his bag. As soon as they were out of the room Allura turned to send Kima a worried look. “They’ll be ok.” Kima murmured, staring intently at the doorway as she tried to convince herself. 

They both drove to drop the children off. Kima offered to go in, but Keyleth gave a soft “we’ll be ok” and Percy just clung to her arm so Kima sighed, nodded, and let them go. “If you need  _ anything  _ tell them to call me ok kids?” Percy gives a little nod, patting Cassandra on the back as Keyleth nudges the door open and scoots out onto the street, helping Tiberius scoot out the door and turning for Percy, offering a hand. “Here, Percy, let me help?” He nods and she tugs him gently forward, catching around his waist when he stumbles and getting both of them and the dogs on the ground. Percy is clinging frantically to his backpack in one hand and Tiberius’s leash in the other, though he relaxes a little once Keyleth’s elbow is firmly under his hand.

It’s so much louder than it had been the day before. Percy shouldn’t have been surprised by that but he was. Keyleth whimpered, pressing closer to his side and clinging tightly to his forearm as they walked. Percy wasn’t entirely sure who was leading who, but he can feel Cassandra paused when they’re about to hit something so between her and Keyleth he manages to make it to the classroom door without getting lost. “This is the right one, right?” Keyleth babbles, squirming nervously. Percy drops Cassandra’s leash, rubs his fingers over the braille next to the door, and nods, so Keyleth opens the door and slips inside.

The teacher is extremely tall, with long hair that’s tied loosely back and reddish-brown skin. They turned, sending a smile at the two terrified looking children in the doorway. The smaller one had hair that was impossibly white for a child his age, and the one on the right looked  _ terrified.  _ “Hi there.” They approached, grimacing as the boy flinched back. “My name is J’mon. It’s very nice to meet you two; you’re Percy and Keyleth right?” Percy nods but Keyleth gives a soft “Yes” and tightens her grip on the reddish-colored dog at her side. 

Percy moves slowly, finding his way to the table that J’mon says he is at and sitting. Cassandra sits at his side, leaning into his leg for a moment before crawling under the table to lay on his feet. He could hear more and more people coming into the room, squirming nervously with long arms wrapped around himself as he waited. A loud thunk at his side drew his attention and he gave a low whine, wanting Keyleth more than he was willing to admit. He could hear what sounded like a bigger person moving around, but he had no ability to see more than that. Percy knew that some people who were blind had some level of residual vision, but his was virtually nonexistent. He could see a few shades of shadows versus light out of his right eye, but besides that, it was completely dark. He whined again at the thought, dropping one hand to rub his fingers over Cassandra’s shoulder.

He could hear J’mon approaching; their feet were heavier on the tile than his classmates, and he felt their hand on the desk as they knelt. “Percy, may I speak to you in the back for a moment?” Percy stiffened and nodded, tapping Cassandra’s back as both stood and slowly followed the teacher to the back of the classroom. “For some reason, the school has not seen fit to give you an aide. Something about budgets and deciding you didn’t need one, which seems absurd to me.” Percy gave a little nod, hand tightening on Cassandra’s harness. “So, we’ve got a few options, Percy. You can just do your best off of what I’m saying and I’ll do my best to come by and help you as much as I can. If you don’t want to do that, we can put you next to someone who I think won’t mind being helpful and see if that works for now?” 

Percy hesitated, hands flexing against Cassandra nervously before he finally nodded and raised two fingers. He assumed the other figure nodded, because he could hear the sound of them standing back up. “Alright, right over here then, Percy.” He fumbled his way to the seat, finding his way into it and slumping down with his fingers tangled in Cassandra’s curly fur. A kind voice on his right piped up with a soft “Hi! I’m Pike, it’s nice to meet you!” Percy gave a little dip of his head, forcing a faltering “Hi. ‘m Percy” from his lips.

The girl talked quietly for a few moments, until J’mon called for attention and took attendance. Keyleth was exceedingly grateful for the fact that J’mon didn’t seem to expect them to do a like, “Hi I’m the new kid.” Instead, the teacher dove straight into class. They were doing math first, so he passed out a worksheet and started to explain it. Keyleth glanced around worriedly, spotting Percy in the back head bent near a  _ tiny _ girl with hair as white as his. Relaxing, she turned back to her sheet, biting her cheek as she struggled through the problems. 

In the back of the room, Percy was listening to Pike intently as she said the equation. The duo realized quickly that Percy was a lot faster than Pike even when she was writing the questions out and he wasn’t. The other problem was that Percy couldn’t get his mouth to work well enough to  _ give  _ his answer, so he had to show the numbers on fingers, which was...ineffective, at best. But they worked their way through it, slowly, and Percy sighed in relief when the paper was finally finished. He wrapped long arms around his torso, squirming nervously as he waited for someone to tell him what to do.

Keyleth struggled through the morning, doing her best to tune out the loud noises of the other children around her. A few times, Tiberius would start to nose his way into her lap and nuzzle at her hands in a grounding effort, the success of which was  _ questionable  _ at best. She jumped halfway through science when J’mon knelt at her side and gave a soft “Are you alright Keyleth?” She gave a jerky nod and he nods, turning back to the worksheet about the phases of the moon. 

The bell ringing 20 minutes later was apparently the last straw. J’mon spun around at a clanging noise, seeing Keyleth scramble to her feet and out the door. He cursed, moving in that direction before hesitating, glancing over his shoulder to see Percy scrambling to his feet, bracing himself on Cassandra’s back for a moment before nudging her forward. “Percy.” J’mon murmured gently. Percy whimpered, squirming and slowly forcing the words to his lips. “I can find her. Please. I want to help.”    
  


He can feel Cassandra lower her head, smelling the ground, as he gives a tap to the middle back of her spine; follow. She trots off and he keeps close to her side, one hand holding the leash and the other clinging to her harness. It felt like they walked forever before Cassandra turned to one side, sat, and gave a sharp bark. He reached for the door, fingers fumbling for the knob and sighing, wishing for a moment that they were back at  _ home,  _ where Keyleth had tied ropes to most of the knobs so the dogs could open them easily. He finally managed to get it open, elbowing his way into the room. Cassandra halted, and he gave another double tap to her right shoulder before closing the door behind them and sitting. He could hear Keyleth; breath catching on her lips as she gasped and so he slowly eased his way to her side, wrestling an arm around her shoulders and leaning her into his side and just did his best to comfort her.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there. At some point Cassandra climbed into his lap with paws on his shoulders, clearly sensing his stress about Keyleth and about what their  _ punishment  _ was going to be. He knew he’d take it for her; Keyleth was good and kind and she tried she wasn’t like him, not  _ broken cruel bad.  _ He jerked himself away for a moment, feeling his skin burn with shame and hatred, but Keyleth cries out and he forces himself to lean back against the wall. It was a long time before Keyleth went quiet and Percy couldn’t help but panic for a moment, because if something went wrong he’d have no way to actually know. 

Keyleth shifted, eyes slowly landing on Percy, who was sitting next to her head resting in his hands, arms around Cassandra’s warm body. She reached out and slowly tapped his shoulder, grimacing as Percy flinched away with a yelp. They settled down together, neither actually able to speak as they just sort of let themselves rest. After a few minutes, Keyleth stood slowly, helping Tiberius up as well. She knelt, offering a hand to Percy and slowly helping him to his feet. He wobbled and Cassandra rushed to brace him, pressing to his knees until he was stable. Keyleth clung to his hand, forcing the door open and stepping back out, a dog on either side of them. 

Percy honestly had no idea where he was going, so he trusted Keyleth’s elbow under his hand and Cassandra at his side. He felt Keyleth freeze and managed to stop his own momentum in time, confused, but then understanding when he realized they must be at the door of the classroom. He took a deep breath, nudging the door open. He could hear people turning to face them and had to bite down on the urge to run, because at least if he ran he might not get caught. But Percy wasn’t stupid, so he stood motionless, listening to J’mon approach. “Keyleth, you guys want to sit at that table near the door? And please wait before you go to lunch; I need to talk to you two.” Percy gave a confused noise but Keyleth must have nodded because soon he was moving forward, sliding into a chair with Cassandra sitting at his side. 

Percy could barely pay attention through English, and when the bell rang for Lunch he once again considered running. But he didn’t want to; he wanted the warmth of his bed and  _ food  _ and he wanted to hear Keyleth call him  _ brother  _ as they curled up together to try and fight off the nightmares. He squirmed, hands fisting in Cassandra’s fur as he shuddered, leaning forward to press his head to her shoulder. She licked at his ear soothingly and he keened, grip tightening on her fur as he waited. 

J’mon sighed, studying the terrified looking kids. Percy was shaking, hands flexing in the fur of the large, grey and brown-furred dog who was nuzzling at his face. Keyleth looked slightly calmer but not by much, hands flapping nervously at her side. J’mon moved forward slowly, dropping to a knee by their table once the others had left. “Hey kids.” Percy flinched backward into Keyleth, one hand reaching out to grasp her hand a little frantically. “Come with me guys, you’re alright. I want to show you what we have in the back room here.” Percy’s eyes flickered with confusion but he stood when Keyleth did, letting himself be pulled up and led. He dropped Cassandra’s leash, ordering her silently to stay where she was. 

The blessed  _ silence  _ of the room J’mon leads them to is incredible. Percy stumbles, leaning against the wall practically purring with happiness and J’mon chuckles behind him. “Yeah, I thought you guys would like it in here.” His voice is kind. “Here, over here there’s a swing and some beanbags.” Percy let himself be led around the room, sighing happily as his fingers brushed over the soft carpet and the bins of stim toys against the wall. J’mon was speaking again but Percy was barely paying attention, most of his focus on the spiky ball in his hand, practically purring with delight. J’mon chuckled, speaking up a little. “I know it’s already been a really long day for you guys. If you want to just rest here for the afternoon I’d totally understand and I’ll make sure I send anything you really need to know home for homework, ok?” Keyleth gives a thrilled noise, curling up on one of the beanbags as Percy stumbles his way to the swing, curling up in it.

Keyleth follows J’mon out, dropping to her knees by Cassandra’s side and picking up the dog’s leash, bringing her to the back room. Cassandra seems just as eager to get back to her boy, curling up near the swing he’s resting in. Keyleth settles down on the beanbags, noise-canceling headphones over her ears, iPad on her lap open to fun stim apps. She was humming happily as J’mon slipped back into the main classroom, leaving the door cracked open so they could hear if anything happened. The next time they glanced in, they saw Keyleth had climbed into the swing next to Percy, him curled up against her chest as she read something off of the ipad, voice soft and gentle as the smaller boy looked near asleep in her arms, looking more peaceful than J’mon had seen him look all day. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura has a very, very long day

Keyleth emerged once more towards the end of class, Tiberius looking around a little warily at her side. The class seemed to be doing some kind of science-related thing, and Keyleth  _ liked  _ science, so she quietly found a spot at an empty table near the back of the room. There was a large boy there with a very small girl perched on her chair next to him, explaining the food chain as the bigger boy carefully glued a little fish into place. J’mon seemed to notice her come in because he smiled and moved to Keyleth’s side, handing her a packet, scissors, and glue, as the girl quickly got to work.

Once she was done, Keyleth carefully picked up her paper and set off for the back room once more. Percy had moved from the swing to a beanbag, one hand slowly petting Cassandra’s shoulders. Keyleth sat by his side, turning to glance at the boy. “D’you wanna hear what we were learning?” Percy nods eagerly and Keyleth grins, setting the paper in his lap as he ran his fingers over the slightly raised images. “Ok, so, we were discussing food chains” she began.

Kima watched the kids as she drove home. They both looked  _ exhausted,  _ Keyleth had fallen asleep as soon as they got in the car, curled up somewhat unsafely on her side with her head on Percy’s lap. The white-haired boy was awake, continuously forcing his eyes back open in a heartbreaking effort to not fall asleep. Cassandra was tucked against his knees as they drove, and Tiberius had taken up perch in the front of the car since the back was running out of room; Kima made a note that they were gonna  _ have  _ to get a bigger car if they got any more kids.

When they got home, Keyleth stirred herself awake, gathering both bags and Tiberius and heading towards the house, Percy trailing 2 steps behind her with something exhausted on his face. Keyleth went straight to their room, Percy hesitating in the doorway as if waiting for something but Kima didn’t understand  _ what  _ he was waiting for. After what felt like  _ several  _ minutes, Percy moved, slowly stumbling down the hall to his and Keyleth’s room.

The next time Kima looked in, Keyleth was sitting at the desk bent over a piece of paper, reading it aloud. It seemed to be some kind of multiple choice with English, and as Kima watched, Keyleth finished reading a question, paused for a moment to write her answer, then turned to see Percy hold up 3 fingers and wrote his answer on a second sheet.

For the next two weeks, the little family slowly tried to make it work. Keyleth and Percy bonded incredibly fast, and Keyleth grew more and more comfortable with school. Percy, on the other hand, was still shut down, obediently following Keyleth around like a lost puppy dog. At around 7 pm one Saturday, Allura was cornered by Kima in their bedroom. “We need to take Percy to a doctor’s appointment tomorrow; Gil just called. They want to get a look at his eyes and do some general health stuff.” Allura grimaced; she was pretty sure Percy was not going to enjoy that. “Ok, yeah, that’s fine. It’s Saturday so we can take him and Keyleth.” Kima grimaces, ducking her head down. “Yeah, Allie...I have the thing tomorrow.” Allura cursed; Kima had a tournament the next day that she had been excited about for  _ months,  _ and Allura really didn’t want her wife to not be able to go. “Yeah, ok. That’s fine, I can take them.”

The next morning came all too fast for Percy, once he was told he’d have to go deal with doctor’s appointments.  _ Doctor  _ was not a good word for Percy, not anymore, and just hearing the news had sent him to the corner of the closet with Cassandra licking him for twenty minutes before he’d calmed. Now, he untangled himself from his blankets and sat up, Cassandra coming with him. His mouth completely refused to form words so he reached to find Cassandra, giving a single tap to her left shoulder; ready. She hopped down, returning with a loose pair of sweatpants, a t shirt, and his shoes. Percy  _ still  _ couldn’t find the longer leash, so he attached the shorter, grabbed his cane, and stood waiting by the door.

The drive wasn’t too long, but it was enough for Percy to work himself up to a near panic attack, one hand flapping against the door as Keyleth came around to help him out, seeing how shaky he looked. “Here, Percy, I’ve got you.” the girl murmured, going for an arm looped around his waist as they moved towards the door.

The waiting room was  _ loud  _ and Allura spent the entire 25 minute wait cursing herself for forgetting to pack headphones because she’d been in such a rush. Percy was sitting on the floor leaning into Keyleth’s legs and clinging to Cassandra, who was in his lap, as she shakily read a book aloud. When the doctor  _ finally  _ appeared it just got worse; the man took one look at the group and shook his head. “Yeah, no, I’m sorry but the dogs can  _ not  _ go back there, it’s supposed to be a fairly sanitary environment and we’ve got several people who are  _ severely  _ allergic to dogs.”

Allura internally cursed; she wasn’t even sure if that was legal, to deny the service dogs access, but the kids looked  _ scared  _ and she didn’t want to argue but this left an  _ impossible  _ situation; one of them had to stay outside. Keyleth apparently had realized this and stood, helping Percy to his feet. “C’mon Percy, it’s ok, I won’t let you get hurt” the little ten-year-old declared.

Percy hid  _ under  _ the table in the exam room, no matter how hard Keyleth tried to coax him out. In the end, she crawled under the table with him and wrapped her little arms around him and held him. Percy seemed fine with this; he was shaking and whimpering and, as the door opened, he went stock still against her side.

Keyleth slowly climbed out from her spot, with a soft “I’ll be  _ right back. _ ” She noticed recently that she was having more luck speaking, which was nice especially because Percy couldn’t really. There was a kind-looking man standing near the door and Keyleth froze, one hand instinctively reaching for Tiberius and finding only air. “Hello there. I’m Doctor Kerrek, but you can just call me Kerrek if you’d like. It’s nice to meet you.” Keyleth whined and to her surprise Percy moved, clinging to one of her legs and  _ cowering.  _ Keyleth hunched down so she was shielding him, giving a cautious “‘m Keyleth. That’s Percy.”

Keyleth watched intently as the doctor slowly approached, offering a hand that she ignored. “He’s gettin’ close, Perce.” she mumbled warningly, and Percy stiffened somewhat reasonably behind her as she glared at the tall man. “You’ve gotta tell him what you’re doing; it’s not his fault he can’t see you.” To her surprise, the man nodded, speaking kindly. “Ok. Percy, can you and your sister get up on the table for me?” Percy whimpered but Keyleth wanted them to get this over with, she wanted her dog back, so she stood with Percy and scrambled up onto the table, the two small ten-year-olds huddled together on the cold metal.

It was slow going. Kerrek quickly realized that the boy wasn’t going to speak, and so he skipped the question portion, but Percy refused to let the man near him. He pressed into the back corner, clinging to Keyleth in absolute terror. He felt disoriented and afraid in this cold room, with his cane against the wall and Cassanda terrifyingly far away, and he was absolutely  _ not  _ letting anyone with the title doctor near him.

Keyleth turned to face the man, feeling absurdly protective of the terrified ball of child behind her. “D’you have to touch him, or could you just look?” The man sighed, considering, before nodding. “Ok, I can probably do most from over here.” He directed the terrified boy verbally through some basic activities and movements and Percy slowly did everything he was told, until Kerrek sighed. “Ok, Percy? I need to give you a quick flu shot and then you’re done. Ok?” It was as if someone had flipped a switch: Percy hurtled himself back under the table and started screaming.

Percy wasn’t sure if he was talking inside his head or outside, desperate to get away. He had to get away, before they could hurt him any worse, before he got killed this time. He was vaguely aware of other voices but he couldn’t move, frozen on his knees with tears streaming down his cheeks. One hand pressed to his eyes; he couldn’t take that pain again, he  _ couldn’t.  _

Keyleth was between Percy and the doctor before she had time to think, snarling up at the man who now looked a lot more terrifying than he had a moment before. Percy was still screaming, babbling something about doctors and pain, one hand pressed against his eyes frantically. Kerrek took two steps backwards, ducking out of the room and leaving Keyleth and Percy in peace. 

In the fairly soundproof room, Percy screamed himself to exhaustion, curled up in Keyleth’s lap. Keyleth was clinging to him, too, face pressed into the pure-white hair as Percy cried himself into complete exhaustion. She didn’t move until he did, helping him sit up and pressing her head into his shoulder. Percy was shuttering a little with complete exhaustion even though Keyleth was pretty sure he hadn’t been crying for more than five minutes, and she took most of his weight as she helped him gently to his feet. “Percy?” She asks, giving a soft, worried noise. “C’mon, let’s go back to the dogs, ok?” Kerrek had completely removed himself and as she stepped out into the hall, her eyes landed on a kind-looking woman, who silently pointed in the right direction. Keyleth gave a grateful noise, helping Percy slowly towards the waiting room.

Allura stood immediately as the children entered, opening her mouth to ask what was going on before seeing the look on Percy’s face and closing her mouth. Percy looked very far away, head slumped against Keyleth’s neck as he moved incredibly slowly. Keyleth grasped Tiberius’s leash, clinging a little frantically to the dog. Percy came awake enough to grasp Cassandra’s harness, shaking miserably.

Allura had been pacing and waiting as the children were in the back, vaguely second-guessing everything she was doing. It was about 5 minutes later when her phone rang, and she raised it to her ear instinctively. “Hey...Gil? Everything ok?” The voice on the other side of the phone was  _ exhausted,  _ Gilmore sounded ready to curl up in a ball and cry as he spoke slowly, voice exhausted. “Hi, I’m so sorry to call you on the weekend, Allura. And you’re at that appointment with Percy aren’t you, shit.” Allura cut him off, voice tight with worry. “It’s fine, Gil, what’s wrong?” Gilmore breathed heavily for a moment before he kept going. “I need your help with someone.”

As Percy and Keyleth reappeared Allura was just hanging up, turning her attention slowly to the shivering form of the children. She handed the dogs over at once, cursing herself internally as she briskly explained what was going on. The kids went quieter, all shaky movements and wide eyes as they crowded into the backseat and Allura set off for the building she was  _ really  _ starting to know all too well.

Keyleth and Percy came in, but they stayed in Gilmore office as Allura followed him towards the back rooms. “So...can you explain? You didn’t tell me much on the phone.” She asks nervously, and Gilmore nodded. “I’ll be honest, I’m still getting info: the kids aren’t back from a medical inspection yet.” Allura grimaced and Gilmore gave a sad little nod, exhaustion painfully visible on his face. “I’ll admit, we’ve been trying to get these two out for a  _ long  _ time, but their dad is pretty powerful so we haven’t been able to, but we  _ finally  _ got the order this morning.” 

Allura was pretty sure that there was something she wasn’t being told, but she ignored that and focused on the files that Gilmore set in front of her. “They’re twins, Vex’ahlia and uh…” Here he pauses, turning the file back to himself for a moment before nodding. “Sorry, the other one doesn’t go by his birth name, his name is Vax’ildan.” Allura nodded, eyes skimming the files quickly as she took in the info; Name, gender (Here, she noted that someone had scribbled over the letter and written a large M in sharpee) , likes/dislikes, and more things like that.

When her eyes ficked back up, Gilmore began to speak again. “I, I totally get if you and Kima can’t do it for even tonight but I had to try; I can’t send these kids to a group home.” Allura’s eyes softened as she studied Gilmore; she and Kima had been friends with him for at least a decade. It was Gilmore who had suggested that they consider adopting kids, who had helped them through the  _ ludicrously  _ long process, who had connected them with Keyleth a really scarily short period of time ago. Gilmore looked more tired than she’d ever seen him, head resting against his hand in absolute exhaustion. 

Kima still wasn’t responding; Allura had texted her at least 10 times, but she just didn’t seem to have her phone on her, and Gilmore needed an answer  _ now.  _ Allura gave a sigh, sent one more text to Kima, and lifted her head to face Gilmore as she nodded.

Vex was leaning in the corner of the room on the exam table, her brother’s head in her lap. Her eyes were locked on the door; she knew she needed to be able to  _ see  _ if someone came in. Vax was dozing, face decorated with bruises from when he’d pissed their father off two days before. He stirred awake as Vex tapped his shoulder, shifting slowly so he was leaning against her shoulder instead of her lap, lower body twitching as the boy gave a sharp whine, which he knew was one of the sounds sharp enough that Vex could hear it.

Vex hummed, low and soothing, wrapping an arm around Vex’s shoulders and shifting him a little so his legs were draped over hers. “It’s ok.” she murmured, clinging a little to her brother. “We’re fine.” Vax gave her a look like he  _ seriously  _ didn’t believe that; he was still shaky and twitchy, and Vex was grimacing in pain with every movement his body made against hers. After what felt like a very, very long time, the social worker reappeared, a forced smile on her face. “Alright, let’s get you two out of here.” 

Vax stood first, wobbling slightly as he reached out to help Vex out. Vex grabbed his shoulder to help herself up, clinging tightly to his side. Her legs shook but she shook off his grip after a moment, forcing herself forward as she whistled for Trinket. Vax stuck to Trinket’s other side, one hand loosely rubbing the dog’s fur as they made their way to the car.

Allura went to tell the others. Percy was asleep, head in Keyleth’s lap clinging to her hand, Cassandra pressing into his legs. Keyleth looked up as Allura entered with a tiny smile, her free hand stroking Tiberius, who was sitting against her side. “Hi.” The girl mumbled and Allura sighed, moving to sit down in a chair. “Well, at least for the next few days, we’re going to have two more children your age staying with us, ok?” 

It was another forty-five minutes before they arrived. Gilmore had napped behind his desk until they got close, but as soon as his phone rang he was up and ready. Percy sat up, too, pressing into Keyleth’s side; he was exhausted and overstimulated and he wanted to go home and lay in his bed and not move for a very long time. He was too tired to care how clingy he was being, pressed against Keyleth’s side as he heard the door open. 

Vex entered first, eyes cautious as she sized up the people before her. There was a tall, thin woman with blond hair and a simple blue dress standing before her, and two children her age sitting back a little ways. Vax followed second; he’d had at least two absence seizures on the drive, and he was a bit out of it, clinging to her hand as she tugged him and Trinket into the room, subtly putting most of her weight on the large dog as the group just sort of stared at each other. 

“Hello, my name is Allura it’s nice to meet you.” Vex gave her best smile, trying to hide the fact that her legs were  _ aching  _ as she spoke up. “Nice to meet you; I’m Vex and this is my brother, Vax.” Gilmore approaches and speaks for a moment, but Vex isn’t really listening until she hears the woman say “Let’s go” and nods, turning towards the door. Trinket turns at once, bracing against her side and helping as she hurried outside.

It was then that Allura realized an issue; someone was going to  _ have  _ to sit in the front. She hesitated, considering for a moment before turning to Vex. “Vex, would you mind sitting in the front? There’d be more room for Trinket.” Vex considers, but Vax cries out softly, grabbing his sister’s arm with a sharp, angry “No! We’ve gotta sit together.” Percy whines softly at the angry voice, still tucked into Keyleth’s side with tears on his face; the white-haired boy was clearly completely spent. Keyleth gave a worried little squirm, one hand petting Percy’s hair and the other clinging to him as she made a decision. “I’ll sit in the front.” 

It was another ten minutes before they actually left. Percy took long moments to actually let go, and even as he settled against the door and tangled his hands in Cassandra’s fur, the boy was whimpering and rocking in exhaustion and confusion. Vex sat in the middle with Trinket sprawling over her and her brother’s feet, but she also  _ kept talking.  _ Percy was exhausted, every word feeling like someone was stabbing him in the back of his brain as he gave a desperate keen, all but begging Keyleth or Allura to understand and make it  _ stop.  _

They don’t understand. It keeps going and going and going and finally Percy  _ can’t  _ do it anymore as he gives a desperate  _ scream,  _ one hand slamming hard into the door as he latches both on over his ears as he screams. Allura curses, pulling the car over into a small parking lot as Keyleth spins around in her seat and reaches back to grasp Percy’s arms. As soon as the car stopped Percy scrambled out, dropping to his knees and gagging as Keyleth scrambled out to hold him tightly. Allura cursed, turning to look at Vax and Vex. Vax was half asleep against the window but Vex’s eyes were irritated and calculating and the stare made Allura vaguely worried about what the girl would say to the clearly exhausted boy.

By the time Allura got around the car to Percy and Keyleth, Percy seemed calmer, slumped in Keyleth’s grip as she hummed worriedly, murmuring softly as she flicked her eyes up to Allura. Allura sighed, crouching and drawing the two kids to her side; she couldn’t blame Percy; the boy had clearly been exhausted after the appointment and it wasn’t a surprise that this had pushed him too far. Keyleth didn’t look good, either, pale and skittish as she squirmed against Percy’s side, clearly forcing down the worst of her distress for him. “Ok” Allura sighed, grimacing as Percy and Keyleth both flinched away. “Ok, Percy? You’re going to sit up front with Keyleth, ok?” Allura was entirely aware that this was a  _ terrible  _ idea but she was also pretty sure putting Percy back in the backseat was a horrible idea and they were only like, five minutes from home. 

Percy let himself be helped up, clinging to Keyleth. He was vaguely glad that he was too tired for the level of disorientation to phase him, because he had  _ no  _ idea where he was and it was really only the way Keyleth’s fingers worked at his neck that let him know it was her. He let himself be settled in the car, head tucked under Keyleth’s head where he could feel her heartbeat against his chest as he struggled to slow his breathing from it’s current too-fast pace.

It felt like only moments later when he was being nudged back up. Percy yelped, clamping both hands onto Keyleth’s shoulders as they slowly moved towards the house. He basically falls over onto his bed as soon as his legs brush it. Keyleth flops down on Percy’s other side, and he can feel the dogs scramble up onto the bed as they doze off. 

Vex moved warily into the house, one arm around her brother’s waist and most of her weight on her dog. Trinket moved just as slowly and she gave a quiet murmur that he was the  _ best dog  _ as she crept into the bedroom they had been kindly pointed towards. There were two beds, but she ignored the one on the right as she helped Vax out of his clothes and into some sweatpants before curling up against his chest, too tired to care about getting herself changed as she quickly fell asleep. 

Allura was pacing when Kima got home. The smaller woman was furious with herself for not having her phone on to hear the many, many texts, dropping her medal and bag on the table as she moved to embrace Allura tightly. Allura slumped, turning to bury her head in her wife’s hair with a muffled sob. “I’m sorry, I should’ve waited till you responded but Gil needed an answer and I don’t, I couldn’t say no Kima.” Kima lifts both hands up to pet her hair, voice firm. “Allie, no, you absolutely made the right decision. We’ll figure it out.” She says firmly, arms wrapped tightly around Allura. “We’ll figure it out.” 


	5. A Family Outing.  also, Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Keyleth raid the kitchen, and a whole-family outing goes a little awry.

Percy woke up early. His phone said it was only five, and usually, he and Keyleth would’ve both slept till closer to seven, but they’d gone to bed early. Keyleth was already up, footsteps soft on the wool rug as she padded to the closet and passed him what he was pretty sure was just a pair of sweatpants and a sweater. He tugged them on, listening for Cassandra’s claws on the wood to indicate she was coming but releasing her with a hand to her haunches and a  _ good girl  _ double-tap to her right shoulder. 

Keyleth decided to make breakfast. Percy trailed after her, leaning against the counter as Keyleth talked to herself, and him, as she got ready. “Chocolate chip pancakes are the best I’m sure the new kids will like them right?” Percy gave a sharp grumble, and Keyleth poked him until he giggled. “Perce, we’ve gotta be nice to them ok? We don’t want Kima and ‘llura to think we’re trouble and get rid of us.” Percy couldn’t find fault with that statement so he nodded and let himself be put to work cracking eggs, because measuring while blind was apparently a bad plan. 

Mixing was generally the best part of baking, in his opinion. You could get the stuff on your hands and lick it off. His mother had used to bake, and he’d stand on her feet and stare into the bowl and then beg her for a taste and she could never say no, letting him lick the spoon and laughing when it got on his nose. Shaking away the memories, the boy returned to the batter, carefully passing the bowl to Keyleth and starting when he felt her nudge another into his hands. “Those are plain.” The girl stated by way of an explanation and Percy got back to work. 

Keyleth talked, quietly, the whole time. She didn’t seem to mind that an affirmative or negative noise was the most she got out of her friend, and Percy didn’t mind because it was clear she was trying to just fill the overwhelming silence around them. She talked about school, running them both through their paces in math, about her family and the wilderness where they’d lived, about how she’d trained Tiberius. Percy rarely wanted to speak, but he wished for a moment it was easier, wished they could compare notes on dog training, and resolved to do his best to sign it out to her later. 

By the time he heard a door open, Keyleth had quietly remarked that it was past seven am, and he was pretty sure they’d made at least 9 varieties of pancakes. Percy had assumed it was Kima, who usually was up before Allura, but a sharp noise from Keyleth and the arm that tugged him back let him know that his guess had probably been wrong. 

Vex was  _ tired.  _ She’d barely slept, in too much pain from the amount of walking she’d done the day before. Vax, at least, had slept pretty well apparently, and now that he had his meds in him, and the prospect of food, he’d perked up. “Vex, c’mon, I smell pancakes.” He grumbles, and Vex gives an irritated look as she works to ease her legs into her braces. “Brother, can you toss me my baggier pants?” He nodded, trotting across the room to throw them to her as they finished getting ready.

The other two kids were in the kitchen. The white-haired one was bent over a bowl, spoon stirring briskly as the redhead was flipping pancakes. “Good morning.” Vex said, a little awkwardly, and she watched both stiffen as the girl gave a soft “Good morning, do you want pancakes? We’ve got a lot of pancakes.” 

Twenty minutes later, they’ve all got plates with pancakes. Percy claims the peanut butter, and Keyleth is nice enough to chop his pancakes, which were monstrosities of chocolate chips and m&ms, up and lather them in the peanut butter. She’d claimed chocolate chip for herself as well, but was using syrup and dipping them. Vax had claimed the other half of Percy’s monstrosities, and he’d lathered them in chocolate, whipped cream, and a little caramel sauce as his sister went for banana pancakes and peanut butter. Keyleth and Vex were talking animatedly about the dogs, while Percy and Vax were content to be quieter and eat. 

Vex had one eye on her brother at all times; Trinket was good at alerting, but he wasn’t perfect, and she’d long since learned how to catch the signals that meant he was about to have a seizure, since Vax rarely noticed them himself. To her relief, they got through food mostly ok, though she was pretty sure in the middle he’d had an absence seizure, jaw working at nothing as he blankly stared at his plate for a few long moments before he raised another mouthful of pancake up and his eyes refocussed. She knew that the adults would find out; she and Vax were good, but not that good, but if she could minimise the impact it had on them, maybe they’d still keep them.

Vax knew he was the harder twin. Vex had her own issues, but she hid them better and they costed less and as long as she didn’t mind crying herself to sleep in agony every night, she could feign normalcy. Vax hadn’t been able to do that in quite a while, and it was only made worse by the fact he typically didn’t get auras before his seizures. Vax tended to go from totally fine to seizing, which was why he effectively never left Vex’s side, and the bruises he’d gotten that week only made it worse. 

She was washing the dishes when Trinket  _ barked.  _ Vex spun, seeing the glazed look on Vax’s face and cursing mentally, moving to grasp his shoulder to tug him up, tossing out a sharp “Gonna go shower” before effectively dragging her brother to their bedroom. They just about made it in time; Vax went stiff in her arms two steps into the room. Trinket closed the door on command and went to try to find Vax’s mouthguard as Vex draped her legs over his, holding him on his side as he started to twitch and jerk against her. 

Three and a half minutes later, Vax fell still. Vex slumped against his side, meager energy stores spent after weeks of minimal food and sleep. Trinket, who had been bracketing Vax’s other side, moved, licking at her ear. Vex grimaced, shifting to haul Vax and herself up onto the bed. Vax gave a slurred whine, and Vex sighed, propelling herself sideways to wrestle a blanket over her sleeping brother, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. Her legs throbbed painfully under her and she groaned, stretching out alongside him as she waited for him to either wake up or start seizing again.

Allura and Kima woke up late. Percy and Keyleth were in the living room, listening to one of the law shows that Percy seemed to like so much. Keyleth had a book propped on his forehead and Percy was lazily stroking Cassandra, who lay on top of him. Kima headed to the table to read the twins’ file, which was...a little scarily thick if they were these kids first home in the system. Allura read over her shoulder, grimacing as she scanned the piles of paperwork. Teacher’s reports, social worker’s reports, medical records...it was vaguely overwhelming. Keyleth’s had been much thinner, and Percy’s had had virtually no information. 

The lack of information in Percy’s had been  _ concerning;  _ the boy was so clearly abused but there wasn’t even a proper medical report. He was covered in scars, and every ounce of the way the boy moved and acted made it clear how much he’d suffered. Percy was rarely still; he was up and pacing and moving all the time. To see him  _ relaxed  _ like this, head in Keyleth’s lap looking content, was a good feeling. 

Allura was shaken back to reality by Kima passing her a medical file. She skimmed it and gave a sharp, horrified noise; the info inside was Awful. There was nothing confirmed, but what the doctors thought was wrong; stories of broken bones and unexplained scars and so many injuries that Kima decided she was going to make a serious inquiry into how these poor kids had gone unhelped for so long. “We need to get these two to a doctor some time soon, too.” she mutters, grimacing when Percy clearly still heard her and flinched closer to Keyleth with a whine. “Yeah. But let’s talk to them first, they should be out soon.” 

Vax came back faster than Vex expected, which was nice. It’s only half an hour later when he twitches against her side with a groan, tucking his head into her shoulder. “Hey, Vax, c’mon, we need to get up or they’re gonna find out.” He gave a shaky nod, rolling sideways and gulping down half the bottle of gatorade that she held to his lips. “Ok, it’s fine, just sit near me ok?” She orders, and his shaky nod is all she needs to haul herself and her brother to their feet. 

Kima turned as the two black-haired twins slipped into the room. They both looked shaky, heads down, dark circles under their eyes. Allura couldn’t tell who was holding up who as they flopped into a loveseat together, massive brown dog stretching out at their feet. One of them was watching TV, while the other looked ready to fall asleep once again. Allura and Kima shared a look and then, slowly, they approached. “Hi there.” Kima’s voice is soft, but the girl’s hands still tighten around her brother. 

Percy listens to the women approach, reaching one hand up to loosely grasp Keyleth’s, head shifting in their direction. Vex’s voice cut through his relaxation, sharp and skittish. “We don’t want to talk to you.” The girl growls, and Percy feels Keyleth stiffen against his back and sits up, cuddling against the taller girl’s side, trying to focus on his show. 

Vex really doesn’t appreciate that the women still keep approaching even as she spoke. She pressed back into the chair, pulling Vax with her. He gave a tired, irritated whine, which she ignored as she gave a careful look at the women. The two women shared a worried look, before the smaller one turned back to face her. “I know, but we do need to talk. Is your brother alright?”

Vax had been resting when they approached. He silently cursed his own  _ uselessness,  _ forcing his eyes open a crack to look at the approaching figures, every movement still feeling like he was trying to get through molasses. He could feel his sister speaking, her chest vibrating under his ear, but it took long moments for him to understand what she’d said. “My brother is fine. He’s just tired.” He thinks he manages to nod along, but he’s not entirely sure as he forces his eyes to stay open through the post-seizure fog. “ ‘m fine.” he murmurs, ignoring Vex’s  _ stop  _ tap to his shoulder. 

Kima was vaguely unimpressed by the twin’s efforts to pretend they were fine, but they just kept trying. Percy and Keyleth slipped out of the room at some point, and Kima could hear Keyleth in the kitchen. “I’m not going to make you two talk to me yet, ok? I’m not going to force you to talk unless it’s to make sure that you are physically and mentally getting what you need.” 

Kima didn’t expect the girl to listen, or trust that she was telling the truth, so she turned and moved towards the door just as Percy and Keyleth reappeared, dogs at their sides. Kima watched in intrigue as Keyleth headed for the middle of the room, grinning when she realized the girl was about to run Tiberius through his paces.

Keyleth smiled down at her dog as she got to work. She started with simple movements, sit, down, over. Then she started getting him to do a bit more advanced things; step, touch, up, hold. She knew her dog could do it; she’d trained the large, beautiful red pitbull herself. He could do these things with his eyes closed. To do anything super complicated; agility, or the little disc he knew, they’d have to go outside and she didn’t want to ask when Kima already looked tired. So she switched to running him through his drills with just hand signals; sit, down, lead, back, forward, left, right, door, finally grinning and wrapping her arms around him when he’d done most everything without concern. 

Percy had been waiting quietly. Keyleth had never seen him actually work with his dog; his general attitude with Cassandra was confusing to the girl. She’d always been taught that you should run a dog through their paces every little while, but she’d been living with Percy for two weeks and hadn’t seen him do it once. But she quickly understood why; as Percy dropped into a seated position on the floor, hands up, Cassandra was already moving. 

When Keyleth trained Tiberius, it looked like work for them both. But when Percy worked with Cassandra it was like a dance. The slightest shift in his body language would send the dog moving, and just a few touches to her body, which he never seemed to lose track of, could entirely change the way she moved. She went from sitting before him to vaulting up and planting herself on his back as he balanced for a few long moments before dropping to a knee and rolling, letting the dog pin him and rub her muzzle against his neck. Kima gave a quiet, impressed sound as she watched. “That’s one well-trained dog.” 

Percy blushed, squirming a little in pride as Keyleth gave an eager nod. “She can like, find his clothes and stuff without him even really asking.” The boy  _ considered  _ answering, telling her that he did indeed tell her just not visibly, but decided against it; that could easily be used to manipulate him or Cassandra in the future. He retreated back to his corner, waiting for Keyleth to speak again so he could tell where they were.

It was early afternoon when Allura decided that they needed to go grocery shopping.  _ None  _ of them really wanted to go, but they had no  _ food  _ and so they needed to. The problem, of course, was that there was no good way of going. They only had one car, and really could only fit 5 people without someone sitting illegally. “I mean...we could always call Drake? He’s got a minivan.” Allura sighed.

And so half an hour later, the battered minivan pulled up. Kima  _ immediately  _ called shotgun, clambering into the front of the car. Percy and Keyleth claimed the back, and Allura decided to sit with them so she could leave the twins to themselves. Percy boosted Cassandra into the back and scrambled in, moving awkwardly until Keyleth settled down against his side and he could relax. 

Vex was not excited about this. Vax was clearly still suffering side-effects of their father’s beating two days before; he was weak and tired and seizing far more than usual and Vex wasn’t sure how to reasonably hide it. But even more concerningly, she was pretty sure she  _ couldn’t  _ walk around an entire grocery store without her crutches. She was grateful that her injuries were easier to hide than Vax’s, but years of damage to her back and legs had left her unsteady on a good day, which this wasn’t. She was  _ pretty sure  _ her crutches had been destroyed, her braces had only made it due to being  _ on  _ her and not smashable, so she was just going to have to suck it up and try to stay in a small area as best she could.

Percy squirmed as he waited for Vex and Vax to finish getting out, grasping Keyleth’s hands and letting himself be helped to the sidewalk. He grasped her arm in one hand and Cassandra’s harness in the other, leash settled over his shoulder as they walked. Allura and Kima had decided to split the list and give the kids their own stuff to find in an effort to let them show some independence, so they passed one list to Keyleth and one to Vex.

Keyleth was delighted with this, though she quickly realized this was going to be harder than it seemed. They had two arms between them, and Percy couldn’t exactly read the list, so she looped Tiberius’s leash around the cart in a clumsy slipknot and clumsily pushed with the same arm she had the list in as they set off to find tomatoes. “Percy, do you like tomatoes?” Percy froze, dark glasses hiding his eyes which she was pretty sure were full of absolute terror once again, before he gave a slow, silent shake of his head. Keyleth personally agreed, and said so, watching the worst of the tension bleed out of Percy’s shoulders as she passed him a tomato to feel for deformities. 

Vex immediately set off away from the others. Vax was hissing in pain; his senses always got unhappy after a seizure, and it was bright and loud. Vex sighed, tugging him into an aisle and pulling off her black scarf, wrapping it carefully around his head and tying it loosely. The dark fabric was almost sunglasses against the harsh light, while still allowing him to see, and Vax immediately slumped in relief, giving a soft “Thanks, Stubby.” Vex grinned, leaning a little more on his arm now that he seemed more stable. “No problem, let’s go find milk, ok?” 

Percy find shopping to suck considerably less than he’d expected. Keyleth was  _ delighted  _ to be out and about and that energy rubbed off on him as he released Cassandra’s harness for a moment to shift how her leash rested. He didn’t really enjoy shopping, since he couldn’t  _ do  _ any of it, but listening to Keyleth describe the apples and beef and whatever else they had in vivid detail made it considerably better. Cassandra seemed to enjoy being out as well, nails clacking on the floor as she trotted along at his side. They were buying carrots when he felt Keyleth still against his side and tightened his grip on her elbow, managing a small, inquisitive noise. “There’s a woman coming over.” Keyleth hissed softly. “She’s watching the dogs.”

Vex was tired before they even made it to the milk section. Vax and Trinket bore most of her weight, but she couldn’t stop the throbbing in her legs as she stumbled, catching herself with a yelp. She tried not to leave too much weight on Vax, and she remembered why halfway down the, thankfully empty, baking aisle. Vax crumbled like his strings had been cut and Vex cursed, just managing to roll sideways to avoid falling on him as Trinket caught Vax. “Good dog, GOOD dog,” Vex praised as she helped her brother up, ignoring his soft “Sorry, Stubby.” 

Keyleth stood straighter as the woman approached. Percy was now clinging to her shoulders from directly behind her, and she could feel him twitching and shakily. Cassandra leaned against his legs and Tiberius sat directly at her side as the woman approached. “I hope you realize.” She sneered, and Percy could hear the tone in her voice, fingers tightening around Keyleth’s arm even though he couldn’t see the look on her face, “That pretending your pet is a service dog is not funny.” Percy whined, low and skittish, and he could feel Keyleth trembling against his side. He snarled, pulling himself to his still-shorter-than-her height. “Are real.” He mumbled, willing his voice to properly work for a moment. “Go away.” 

Percy wasn’t sure what had happened, but he was running. He had one arm in front of his face and the other pressed around his chest, and whatever part of his brain had any room left for thought was screaming  _ this is a really bad idea.  _ He ran harder, feeling his forearm bang against a wall and pressing his back to it, feeling tears wet on his face. His hands were shaking frantically as he flapped desperately, searching for a familiar sound or smell. One of his hands dragged across a cold surface and he stumbled, and then there were hands grasping his shoulders and a sharp, worried voice in his ear. “Percy?”

Vex and Vax had been getting milk when it happened. They’d been debating who should carry the milk, and in the end Vex had ended up with it since she was  _ slightly  _ less likely to fall over. They turned back towards the middle aisles, taking slow, practiced steps, until Vax went stiff. Vex cursed, thinking it was the start of another seizure, giving a frantic look around the space, but instead of falling over, Vax gave a sharp “Isn’t that the kid, uh...Percy?” Vex turned, seeing the white-haired boy stumbling in their direction, blood running down his face, looking entirely lost. Vex cursed, dropping Trinket’s leash and taking stumbling steps forward until she could grasp the shaking boy’s shoulders.

“Percy, hey, Percy, it’s ok, it’s Vex and Vax. You’re ok.” Percy cowered against her side, the sound of his gasping breaths filling the air. Vax had made it to her side, and Trinket began to nuzzle at the boy’s hands. “Ok, yeah...let’s move into this little side hallway.” Vex said allowed, gently steering Percy down the aisle and watching as he flopped to the ground at once. Trinket was scrambling onto the boy’s lap in an instant, resting his big head on Percy’s shoulder and his muscular body over the small boy’s lap. “Vax.” Vex murmured, tilting her head towards the main part of the store once more. “You two stay here. I’m gonna find the redhead, uh…” Vex grimaced for a moment, unable to remember the name, but Vax supplied “Keyleth” and she nodded. “Yeah, ok. I’ll watch for the others.”

Vex regretted  _ life  _ as she hobbled out of the aisle. Her right leg had given up on functioning after her fall before, and so she effectively was dragging her leg behind her as she stumbled forward, leaning heavily on the wall as her keen eyes scanned for Keyleth or the dogs or Allura and Kima. After a few minutes, she found herself in the healthcare aisle, and quickly borrowed two canes. They weren’t as good as her crutches, which she longed for once more, but the little bit less weight on her legs was such a relief that she felt twenty times better. 

Vax had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Percy wasn’t even responding when he tried to talk to him, just clinging to Trinket and shaking. Vax didn’t feel great either; he was tired and doing his best to stay calm in an effort to avoid a seizure since he was pretty sure Percy was too out of it to help. He settled down across from the boy and waited quietly for his sister, freezing at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Percy didn’t even seem to notice so Vax stood, ignoring Trinket’s whine of concern as he moved slowly towards the store.

There was an angry brown-haired woman stalking towards the small hallway. Vax braced himself in the doorway, glaring her down, and grinned internally when she faltered. “My brother needs a quiet space for a moment, we would appreciate it if you would not go this way.” The woman raised herself up slightly on her toes, clearly looking over his shoulder, and he grimaced; his own dark skin and hair was a sharp contrast to the frail, pale, white-haired boy behind him.

The woman took a step forward, and Vax forced himself to draw on the bravery, or stupidity if you asked his sister, that had always made him their father’s favorite target. “Ma’am, if you try to get past me, I’m going to start screaming and they are going to think you are trying to kidnap us and I will not hesitate to tell them that is the case. We are trying to shop in peace, now  _ go away. _ ” Vax held his breath; he wasn’t bluffing, not really, but he didn’t want to have to do that he didn’t want to get himself and Vex in trouble again. Thankfully, a few painful moments later, the woman sent an angry sneer in his direction and turned away, and Vax relaxed slightly, muscles still shaking as he tried to calm himself.  _ “Come on, we can’t have a seizure now _ .” 

Vex felt like she’d walked damn near the whole store when she saw Keyleth. The redhead was clinging to both dogs, eyes wide and afraid. She froze as Vex hissed “Keyleth, over here.” A moment later, the redhead was at her side, eyes wide. “Have you seen Percy is he ok he ran off and I didn’t see where he went and I can’t find him.” She babbled fearfully. Vex nodded, turning back towards the hallway, hands shaking with effort. Keyleth’s eyes flickered down at her legs and she softened. “D’you want an arm?” She offered, but Vex gave a sharp growl and so the girl flinched away and just followed.

Percy was barely any calmer when, after an indiscriminate length of time, Trinket scrambled off him. He gave a confused noise, wondering if perhaps Vex was back, but he didn’t hear her voice so he pulled his knees to his chest and  _ waited.  _ He wanted Cassandra, wanted the searing pain in his hand to go away, wanted someone to tell him he wasn’t there he refused to be there he  _ couldn’t  _ be there not again he’d gotten out. He pressed his hands to his face in a desperate effort to keep  _ her  _ from reaching them, tears running down from around his fingers as he shuttered. 

Keyleth reached the hallway a half step ahead of Vex. She dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around Percy’s shoulders and tugging him into her lap with an arm tight around his shoulders. “Perce, I’m so sorry.” She babbled. “I was so scared and then she hit you and then you were gone and I couldn’t find you I’m sorry.” Percy tucks his head under her chin and grasps Cassandra, hands shaking as he haltingly signs “home.” 

Vex was going to take a two hour long bath when she got home, she decided, seeing the look on Vax’s face. He was staring blankly as he stumbled slowly in a small circle, one hand picking at the third button of the jacket he was trying to remove. Vex sighed, trotting over to his side and carefully rebuttoning the jacket, keeping one hand loosely on Vax’s shoulder to make sure he didn’t wander into the store, speaking softly. “C’mon Vax, we don’t have much time, come back.” She said firmly, giving a soft “Thank you” to Trinket, who was moving easily around Vax’s legs trying to keep him in the hallway.

By the time Kima and Allura found them, things had settled a little. Keyleth had managed to finish getting everything on the list, and she’d coaxed Percy into letting her clean the blood away from his nose. Vex and Vax were hunched shoulder-to-shoulder against the wall, leaning heavily on each other as they set off back into the store. 

The rest of the trip passed in a daze for Percy. He clung to Keyleth’s side, forcing his throbbing right hand to function as he gripped Cassandra’s harness. The car ride was, mercifully, short, and Percy was out of the car and in the house as fast as humanly possible. Keyleth trailed behind to help with the bags, lowering one lighter one down for Tiberius to hold as she moved into the house and set the groceries down, hesitating before heading towards the bedroom where she assumed Percy was.

Vax was moving like he was made of molasses, slow and confused and shaky. Vex was putting as much of her weight on him and Trinket as she could, but every step sent stabs of pain up her legs and into her back. She kept walking, sinking down onto her bed, burying her face in Trinket’s shoulders, and bursting into tears, her brother pressed into her side murmuring “You’re ok, Stubby, we’re ok. We’re ok.” 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so, so sorry it has been so long.

Keyleth was  _ not  _ thrilled about going back to school in the morning. She’d splinted Percy’s hand the way her dad had taught her at his clinic, her small hands rubbing soothingly up and down his arms. They’d huddled together, shoulder to shoulder, for hours that night as Keyleth read the chapters of The Hobbit that they needed to read. Percy settled the old laptop Allura and Kima let them use on his lap, fingers flying over the keys as he wrote. Keyleth was vaguely impressed; her friend was a faster typer than she was, and she could see where her hands were going. She was writing on paper instead, humming softly as she tried to analyze the book.

Vex hadn’t cried like that for months, not since the fire, not since their mother had died, not since they’d gone to their father. Vax pressed into her back, hands tight around her forearms. She shivered, bringing her head down to rest her forehead against their clenched hands as Vax ran a hand along her back. “God, we have to go to school  _ tomorrow.”  _ Vex moaned, and Vax stiffened against her back with a soft, concerned noise. “We’ll be fine, Stubby, we always are.” 

Percy woke up with a head full of fog and lips that made it very clear that speaking wasn’t going to happen. He gave a low moan, shifting and snapping his fingers to try and call Cassandra, relaxing when he felt the snout come to rest in his hand, tongue lapping over his wrist. He slowly sat, trying to remember what hand signal meant “Please find me clothes.” He went for a back left hauch tap, and Cassandra obliged, even though Percy remembered a few moments later that that wasn’t at all what that command meant.  _ My dog is the best  _ he thought absent-mindedly as he worked his way into the pants that he’d found roughly shoved into his hands. 

He wondered for a second what the shirt looked like; it felt like a sweater type of thing, warm and soft under his fingers. He scritched his fingers through the dog’s soft fur, humming softly. Her harness wasn’t on and he cursed mentally; he  _ didn’t  _ want to deal with finding that, but he was going to have to.  _ Ok, this is fine, it’s… _ his mind drew a blank; he hadn’t even taken it off the day before, he had no clue where it was.  _ Ok. One thing at a time.  _ He worked his shoes on next, fingers moving slowly as he made sure his laces felt secured before dropping a hand back to Cassandra’s shoulder as he helped himself to his feet. 

Searching beside the door, he found that the harness was  _ not  _ on the hooks, which was...well, not the most helpful thing in the world.  _ Ok, that’s fine, we really need more than one of these.  _ The harness Cassandra had was pretty bad; he’d made it by hand from scraps and an old tshirt. It worked, but...it could be a lot lighter and it had a bad habit of breaking, repeatedly.

He pressed a hand to Cassandra’s shoulders, and she eventually seemed to get the message, trotting off. Percy remained frozen against the wall, hands starting to shake a little before there was a muzzle resting on his hands and he grasped the thick cloth, slowly shifting to clip the buckles. Cassandra stood patiently as he fumbled for long minutes before finally running his fingers under the third and final buckle with a nod.

He did  _ not  _ want to go to school. Keyleth leaned against his side, hand wrapped tightly around his as they walked slowly towards the car. Vex and Vax were walking slowly, Percy could hear the footsteps on the sidewalk. Then, the hand on his elbow was shifting, helping him slowly up into the back of the car. He was sure Keyleth was talking to him, but he couldn’t even hear what she was saying as they were moving again, for what must’ve been entering the school building. 

Vex was trying Not to lean too much on Trinket, fingers tangled in his fur. Vax walked slowly along at her side, their hands clasped together. She was putting more weight on him than she liked to, but she hoped it at least looked like she was just worried about going into a new school. Kima had explained that they were going to be in the same class as Percy and Keyleth, and Keyleth had insisted that their teacher was Awesome.

Percy and Keyleth led the way, because they knew where they were going. Keyleth slipped inside the room, waving to J’mon and holding the door for Percy as the teacher approached. “Hi there, you two are sitting over there today.” They point towards an empty table and Keyleth tugs Percy in that direction.

Vex scanned the classroom cautiously. It was homey; there were drawings up on the walls and it was colorful without being too bright. Vax had tightened his grip on her arm as the teacher approached, giving them both a smile. “Hi there, my name is J’mon and I’m gonna be your guys’ teacher this year. I assume you want to sit together?” Both nod, so he leads them to a nearby table.

Class starts with reading, which….Percy is not thrilled about since reading is kind of hard when you can’t see. Keyleth leans against his side, shoulder to shoulder, reading quietly to him. J’mon had had a plan for this class but now he just watched curiously; it seemed the teens had their own plan. Vex and Vax were working quietly, filling in the blank spaces on the sheet with relative ease.

Percy and Keyleth both seemed a little calmer for the first hour or so, which made sense because it was primarily quiet time. But then, the bell rang, and it was time for  _ gym.  _ Keyleth stood slowly, Tiberius clambering up at her side. Vex, meanwhile, is trying to coax her legs under her. Vax, who had only had one very short seizure that even she hadn’t really noticed, tangles his arm with hers and helps her up.

The walk to the gym was short enough, at least. Percy gripped his cane in one hand and Keyleth’s hand in the other; they’d swapped leashes today since his long one apparently had just disappeared and was not gonna be findable. He could hear J’mon walk past to talk to the gym teacher, probably to tell him about  _ them. _

Vex really wished she had her crutches. There were some sports that she  _ liked;  _ she’d done some climbing, back home, and she enjoyed hockey and basketball, but she couldn’t do then with Trinket as her only support and she was pretty sure that Vax  _ wasn’t  _ supposed to do shit that could get him whacked in the head again, especially since it hadn’t been long since their last  _ punishment  _ from their father, but she also knew neither could say that.

Finally, J’mon left and the gym teacher approached the class. “Alright, today we are going to be doing some basic basketball skill drills, so please pair up.” Keyleth waited until her classmates had all wandered off before she approached the teacher. “Hi sir, we were wondering if we could unleash the dogs?” The man gave her a vaguely unimpressed look but she continued. “It’d make it easier for them to get out of the way if someone accidentally throws one in their direction, and they won’t move otherwise if we don’t tell them to.” He sighed and nodded. “Alright, but if they do cause issues you guys are gonna have to leave.”

Vex and Vax claim a corner of the room, where Vex can prop herself against the wall as they bounce the ball back and forth. Trinket lays a few feet away, dark brown eyes watching Vax just as intently as Vex did; she really didn’t want to be surprised by a seizure. Vax, for his part, was mostly just showing off, doing tricks with the ball.

Keyleth flinched every time someone’s basketball hit the court, which meant she flinched for...most of the class. By the end she was a jittery mess, and Percy clumsily wrapped his hand around hers and managed to get out “ok?” She doesn’t even try to argue that she is, fumbling to put Tiberius’s leash on him and ducking into the sensory room the minute they get back. 

Vex felt  _ awful,  _ and the fact it was about to be lunchtime didn’t make her much happier. Vax hadn’t had any other seizures, so far, but he was looking as exhausted as she felt and she knew that tended to make him seize which was...not great, especially when her brother had to have multiple kinds of seizures which made it hard to tell if he was having one. 

Trinket was the one who alerted, nipping Vex’s hand. She pulled Vax up, babbled something about the bathroom, and bolted for the gender-neutral bathroom right down the hall. She whispered praise to Trinket as she closed the door, groaning as she looked at Vax and saw the spacey look on his face as he wandered around the small room, Trinket the only thing that kept him from bumping into walls. 

Percy sat quietly until the bell rang again and J’mon approached. “Percy, do you want to come with me to the cafeteria, or do you want me to go and get some food for you and your siblings?” He holds up two fingers and J’mon nods, ducking out of the classroom at the same time that Percy ducks into the back room. 

Vex isn’t sure how long they stay in the bathroom, as Vax’s seizure lasts close to six minutes before his eyes slowly start to refocus and he starts shakily responding to Vex’s questions. They sit on the floor together for another ten, Vax sighing tiredly. “Wanna go home” “I know, me too. Three more hours.” Vax whimpers, but there’s really nothing else Vex can say; he has to be able to do this, he can’t keep making Vex’s life impossible. He finally gives a shaky nod to let her know he’s good to move, and they clamber up together.

“We need to get you new crutches” “Yes.” She nods shakily. “Yes, yes we do.” Vax grimaces at the bright lights of the hallway, hooks an arm under Vex’s to help her, and they limp back to the classroom together. J’mon passed them food, sandwiches, and they dug in as quickly as possible; neither was willing to risk passing on the food when they didn’t know when it’d be offered again. 

Class resumed with Science. Percy crept back into the classroom, sitting all the way in the back. Keyleth came, too, mostly because she knew how much Percy loved science and didn’t want to be the reason that he didn’t get to do it. They were working on some engineering stuff, and J’Mon was deeply impressed by how insanely well Percy did at easily assembling the complicated pieces, finishing at least ten minutes faster than the first seeing person could finish. 

Vex and Vax had slipped into the back room after lunch. Vax had had a bad drop attack that had sent him and Vex down, and they were grateful for the soft carpet as they curled up together under one of the weighted blankets, Trinket standing guard. Vax’s nimble fingers massaged his sister’s legs and back, trying to lessen the agony he knew she was in.

The end-of-the-day bell rang and Percy was...pretty impressed that they’d all survived the day. He clung to Keyleth’s arm and Cassandra’s harness, which was  _ definitely  _ falling apart, and let himself be guided into the car. It was usually terrifying for him when he let someone guide him instead of leading himself, but he was too exhausted to be afraid.

They were half-way home when it happened. Trinket gave a loud, sharp bark, and Vex swore under her breath because she knew that bark, that was his alert bark, and there was no possible way to hide her brother having a seizure in a crowded car. The word ‘language’ had just made it past Allura’s lips when Vax went stiff and Vex gave a sharp “Stop the car!” 

Allura, thankfully, was an ‘act now, then ask questions’ kind of person and she’d pulled over in seconds as Vex tugged her brother out with her, bracketing his shaking body between her and trinket, fingers fumbling for his mouthguard. Allura was reaching for her phone as Vex gave a sharp “no, he doesn’t need an ambulance. He” she tangles her fingers in his hair, whispers in a language Allura doesn’t know into his ear. “He’s epileptic. This just...happens sometimes.”

The young girl crouched defensively over her brother’s body as, two minutes later, the seizure came to an end. He was shaking a little, still, residual twitches setting into his muscles, but after a minute or two he stirred, tucking his head against her shoulder with a quiet whimper. “You’re ok” Vex whispers, daring the universe to make it untrue. “We’re ok, Vax” She squares her shoulders, keeping him close as she slowly turns her eyes up to look at Allura. 


End file.
